Boychick said:
B'H
Shalom,
My name is Mendel. I come from parts of the world where christians are not very visable and recently moved here to the States. In my studies, I have not learned much of Christanity, since you can imagine, there isn't much time for discussion on them where Talmud takes importance.
What I do know of christians is either what the Cha'Zal ( Jewish Sages ) have written and what me and my fellow boochers discussed, and since we knew bupkis to begin with, it left it us with more questions then answers.
Then I came to the glorious United States to live and study and now I find christians all over the place. They hand me pamplets, invite me to places and tell me how they love Israel. I am shy and I fear a public confratation so I don't ask questions with these people in the street, so I figure I ask here.
I'm just going to go ahead and ask these questions and I hope you find time to answer them and fill my curiosity.
1: Some gentile girl asked me if I was saved yet. I didn't say anything, but I wanted to ask, " What do I need saving from? Is my life in peril or is there something I should know about?"
2: Who is Joshua and why do I need him as my king?
3: How big is the christian bible?
4: I know christians believe in a messiah that rose from the dead, Rashi speaks of this. Why is this of importance? Miracles are miracles but they have a lesser role where I come from.
5: What is the Trinity?
6: What does the Christian cross stand for? Does it stand for the punishment the christian messiah went threw or something else?
Hello and Shalom, Mendel,
1. The girl was speaking of Yeshua Messiah, the lamb of God spoken of by the prophets, who would come and be the sacrifice for all time for the sins of His people - saving us from our sins and death.
By reading Isaiah we find a description of His first time to walk among men that led to His death and resurrection to new life where He will return the second time as the Lion of Judah, conqueror, to reign over all earth. God provided the sacrifice for our sins, just as He did for Abraham on the mountain with Isaac. Here is a very good link with many of the Old Testament verses that point out who Messiah is.
http://www.letusreason.org/Juda2.htm
Isaiah 53:1 ¶ Who hath believed our report? and to whom is the arm of the LORD revealed?
2 For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground: he hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him.
3 He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not.
4 ¶ Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.
5 But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.
6 All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.
7 He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth: he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth.
8 He was taken from prison and from judgment: and who shall declare his generation? for he was cut off out of the land of the living: for the transgression of my people was he stricken.
9 And he made his grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death; because he had done no violence, neither was any deceit in his mouth.
10 ¶ Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise him; he hath put him to grief: when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in his hand.
11 He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied: by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many; for he shall bear their iniquities.
12 Therefore will I divide him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong; because he hath poured out his soul unto death: and he was numbered with the transgressors; and he bare the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.
2. Jesus or Joshua is the Redeemer and has a spiritual Kingdom not of this earth. First He came to save us from sin and death - to translate us from the kingdom of sin and death into His kingdom of life when He died in our place for our penalty of falling into sin and death as a race of beings, but He will come again and rule here for a thousand years, rescuing His people from armageddon, when all the nations of the world will come against Israel one last time. This is happening today, about 2500 years after the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. The entire account of end-times is recorded in the New Testament in Revelations and reflects much of the 70 weeks of Daniel the prophet. Jesus will return and live here with the remnants of both houses of Israel and their companions for 1000 years before making a new heavens and earth. Before this time, the two houses of Israel will be reunited. The house of Judah and the house of Ephraim (Israel) will come back together right before the end and fight the enemies of God. They are the two witnesses of the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Remember, Ephraim was God's "firstborn", receiving the double portion blessing from Jacob, but when the split of Israel happened and they went of into exile, only Judah and Benjamin returned to rebuild the temple and the wall in Jerusalem. Jesus aid that He came to find the lost sheep of Israel - the Church. The prophet Hosea speaks very much about Ephraim, and how God would plant them like a seed into the ground of history to reemerge at the proper time and come to the aid of their brother Judah.
Job 19:25 For I know that my redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth:
Isa 41:14 Fear not, thou worm Jacob, and ye men of Israel; I will help thee, saith the LORD, and thy redeemer, the Holy One of Israel.
Ezekial 37:16 Moreover, thou son of man, take thee one stick, and write upon it, For Judah, and for the children of Israel his companions: then take another stick, and write upon it, For Joseph, the stick of Ephraim, and for all the house of Israel his companions 17 And join them one to another into one stick; and they shall become one in thine hand.
Hosea 1:9 Then said God, Call his name Loammi: for ye are not my people, and I will not be your God.
10 Yet the number of the children of Israel shall be as the sand of the sea, which cannot be measured nor numbered; and it shall come to pass, that in the place where it was said unto them, Ye are not my people, there it shall be said unto them, Ye are the sons of the living God.
Jer 3:18 In those days the house of Judah will walk with the house of Israel, and they will come together from the land of the north to the land that I gave your fathers as an inheritance.
Isa 11:12 And he shall set up an ensign for the nations, and shall assemble the outcasts of Israel, and gather together the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth.
13 The envy also of Ephraim shall depart, and the adversaries of Judah shall be cut off: Ephraim shall not envy Judah, and Judah shall not vex Ephraim.
14 But they shall fly upon the shoulders of the Philistines toward the west; they shall spoil them of the east together: they shall lay their hand upon Edom and Moab; and the children of Ammon shall obey them.
Zech.9:13 When I have bent Judah for me, filled the bow with Ephraim, and raised up thy sons, O Zion, against thy sons, O Greece, and made thee as the sword of a mighty man. 14 And the LORD shall be seen over them, and his arrow shall go forth as the lightning: and the Lord GOD shall blow the trumpet, and shall go with whirlwinds of the south.
Zech 10:6-10 I will strengthen the house of Judah, and will save the house of Joseph, and I will bring them back, because I have had compassion on them; and they will be as though I had not rejected them, for I am Yahweh their Elohim and I will answer them. Ephraim will be like a mighty man, and their heart will be glad as if from wine; indeed, their children will see it and be glad, their heart will rejoice in Yahweh. I will whistle for them to gather them together,for I have redeemed them; and they will be as numerous as they were before. When I scatter them among the peoples, they will remember Me in far countries, and they with their children will live and come back. I will bring them back from the land of Egypt and gather them from Assyria; and I will bring them into the land of Gilead and Lebanon until no room can be found for them.
Jer 31:31 "Behold, the days are coming, says the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah-- 32 not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, though I was a husband to them, says the LORD. 33 But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the LORD: I will put My law in their minds, and write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people.
3.The Christian Bible is the Old Testament and the New Testament. See this link:
http://www.carm.org/questions/canon.htm
4. The "firstborn" blessing given to Ephraim from Jacob may have some to do with this, as Jeremiah notes it this way:
Jeremiah 31:9 They shall come with weeping, and with supplications will I lead them: I will cause them to walk by the rivers of waters in a straight way, wherein they shall not stumble: for I am a father to Israel, and Ephraim is my firstborn.
Micah 6:7 Will the LORD be pleased with thousands of rams, or with ten thousands of rivers of oil? shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?
Exodus 4:22 And thou shalt say unto Pharaoh, Thus saith the LORD, Israel is my son, even my firstborn:
In the New Testament, Jesus is the "firsborn" of God that leads all men to eternal life, being the first to be raised from death into new life. We must all conquer death through this sacrifice provided for us by God through His Son Jesus. When man fell in the garden of Eden into death, God promised a Messiah. Jesus was the first to conquer death by bearing our sins as arace of beings and then by reason of His innocence, raised by the Father to new life, being set at God's right hand.
Colossians 1:15 Who is the image of the invisible God, the
firstborn of every creature:
Romans 8:29 For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the
firstborn among many brethren.
Hebrews 12:23 To the general assembly and
church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect,
5. God speaks of Himself as plural from the begining. The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are clearly portrayed throughout scripture, but the word "trinity" is never used. Many people struggle with this issue, but I for one see this as God not being bound or limited to the frame of a man. He exceeds all that we are and His ways are higher than ours. It would be arrogant on our part to transpose our limitations onto God when HYis having the three persons benefitted us when the Father raised the Son from death and became the first to be born of God's family given new life - conquering death forever.
Genesis 1:26 And God said,
Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.
Genesis 11:7 Go to,
let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one anothers speech.
God is much greater than the limitations of character and the frame that man has. In the New Testament, Jesus is spoken of as the Word of God by which God the Father created all things. Jesus the Word of God became flesh and walked among men.
John 1:1 In the beginning the Word already existed. He was with God, and he was God.
2 He was in the beginning with God.
3 He created everything there is. Nothing exists that he didnt make.
4 Life itself was in him, and this life gives light to everyone.
5 The light shines through the darkness, and the darkness can never extinguish it.
9 The one who is the true light, who gives light to everyone, was going to come into the world.
10 But although the world was made through him, the world didnt recognize him when he came.
11 Even in his own land and among his own people, he was not accepted.
12 But to all who believed him and accepted him, he gave the right to become children of God.
13 They are reborn! This is not a physical birth resulting from human passion or planthis rebirth comes from God.
14 So the Word became human and lived here on earth among us. He was full of unfailing love and faithfulness. And we have seen his glory, the glory of the only Son of the Father.
6. The empty cross represents the resurrection to new life and the fact that Jesus conquered the curse of the cross and death for all mankind. By His stripes we have been healed and delivered from the kingdom of death into the kingdom of new life.
The cross with the suffering Messiah reminds people of the pain and great sacrifice that has been given for their lives by God, Himself, and that we should be willing to follow after Him and serve others with our lives also.
